Bretney and Josh at Muttations.com interviewed me for their Hunger Games podCast last week — and posted it tonight — Enjoy this Hunger Games PodCast.
We talk about my multi-layered interpretation of Ms. Collins first two Hunger Games books and the Pearl Plot theory throughout so check out those posts before or after listening.
Thank you, Bretney and Josh, for the invitation to chat and for the fun we had talking about Panem and our friends there!
Wonderful podcast! Well worth the time to listen all the way through.
On p. 196 of CF, we see it was actually the younger version of Katniss’ blonde-haired, merchant-class mother who was with the twins at the reaping, rather than the dark-haired seam-kid, Haymitch.
I suspect Haymitch’s relationship with Maysilee could have been initially formed in the Quell arena, rather than at any point prior to that. They did not seem to form an alliance until later in the game (unless that, too, was a ruse intended as Capitol-directed nose-thumbing).
I wonder if it was this shared loss that could have cemented a relationship between Haymitch and young Ms. Everdeen (and further, a merchant-class/seam-class cooperative) based on a mutual goal of rebellion against the power that tore Maysilee (or her sister) from them.
Perhaps that shared loss blossomed into a larger rebellion, the success of which was dependent on Mrs. Everdeen, Haymitch, Maysille’s (sister), and others (e.g., Mr. Undersee, Gale’s parents) to play the “long game”.
Your thoughts?
~STS~
Agreed on all points, at least as valid speculations. And thank you for being so gracious about my gaffe in placing Haymitch with the twins at the Quell Reaping!
Thanks for the link to the podcast! It was an interesting listen. I hate to split hairs, but I think the Entertainment Weekly list you mentioned is ordered by publication date more than anything else. It would be pretty weird that their “rankings” lined up in perfect chronological order with the books’ release dates.
I know I’m biased, but I think these books are a little more popular than the podcast implied. My local library has over 30 copies of the Hunger Games alone and the waiting list is still over 200 people long! Maybe that’s because I live in the same valley that’s home to Meyer’s BYU and we like alchemy when we see it, or maybe word really is spreading about the books. 🙂
What a super interview! From the last bit of the podcast, I’m really thinking more about Collins the media insider writing this story. Does that make Cinna a story-cipher for her, the person who is both a creature of this culture and its critic? Are his costumes a visual representation of what she is doing with this story–entertaining us while showing us why our entertainment is peverse?
lmao fun stuff dude.
Great podcast! One question: Suzanne Collins commented in her Border’s Book Club interview that Katniss evoked such a response from the viewers in Panem not because of her archery skills, but because of her compassion. That isn’t something that Haymitch or anyone else could have planned in advance – or is it?
I have been wondering for a while what posible narrative purpose is served by that awful, cat, Buttercup (aside from a nod to Hermione’s Crookshanks). I think you’ve hit it, Karen. Her relationship with that brute shows her compassion, even for creatures she dislikes, and her ability to build alliances, however begrudging (no hissing, entrails) with others who are fighters. Anybody else guessing that Katniss’s mom mentioned this strange relationship to Haymitch?